I was just catching up with your journal...congratulations on all you've acheived already! Can't wait for the big announcement!!! I'm glad you're here and such a positive inspiration to so many! Thanks.

I've lost 8.4 pounds over the past 2 weeks, up from 4 the previous two weeks. If you recall from my last update, I spent the entire two weeks before it on auto-pilot. I was pleased that I could maintain weight loss without putting any effort into it, but I know I can't spend the rest of my journey on auto-pilot. So I decided to shake things up a bit, and I did!! The result is without a doubt in my mind my biggest breakthrough yet with this program.... I decided to try Dr. McDougall's advice to the volume eater, as outlined in How to Help the Volume Eaterâ€”The Person with a Binge Eating Disorder. The simple advice given in this newsletter has had a huge impact on me in the past two weeks. It's like learning to eat all over again... My overall volume of food intake has declined, yet I am as satisfied as ever. I have only started to learn this new tool, and have still overeaten several times, but I can see the trend and it's a good one.======================================I started a blog!! I have too much inside me to squash down... it needs to come out, so I started a blog called Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy. For an explanation of why I chose that name see my first posting at: Three Hundred Pounds Of Joy! The main page of my blog is HERE. You can see a nice graph of my past weight loss and future projections, as well as other articles I've written there.======================================I'm having success reaching out to people! My parents continue to eat oats and barley for breakfast, and I have a friend who, while reluctant to give up anything, decided to try the "Eat More Starch" challenge. She reported back that she'd lost 7 pounds and was ready to jump on in head first to the rest of the program!======================================I have more I wanted to share, but it's late and I'm busy. Maybe tomorrow I'll post more.

I love your updates! You sound much more positive now. I will check your blog out. I started a blog mostly to motivate myself even though I share it with others. It just keep me from going on "auto-pilot" like you say. I also find that going back and reading things that Dr. McDougall has written in past newsletters very helpful. I actually printed out the article you mentioned last week. Keep up the good work!!

Happy to see you are blogging, Norm. I've added a link to your blog on mine, which I recently decided to resurrect. (chilechews.blogspot.com) Not sure yet whether I'll restore my other blog focused more on health and eating.

In the two weeks since my last weigh-in I've lost exactly 10.0 pounds!! Yay!! That is ahead of my goal of losing 1% of my body weight each week. By my quick math I have been losing an average of 1.4% of my body weight these past two weeks.

Here is a graph of my weight loss to date and a projection of my future weight loss at the goal of 1% body weight per week.

I sailed right threw and blew the doors off the 350 pound mark during these past two weeks! 350, while a nice round number, has not been one of my goal numbers, for reasons I've mentioned much earlier in my journal. I should reach 336 pounds with my next two-week weigh in, marking 150 pounds lost... But an even bigger motivator for me comes at 327 pounds!

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Volume Eater Update

I've been following Dr. McDougall's advice to the volume eater for almost a month now. I do not eat large meals all at once anymore, but spread them out into smaller portions. It is an eating strategy that is working very well for me and I'm surprised at how much my stomach has shrunk in that time.

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My attempt at going Gluten Free.

After last weigh in I celebrated by eating too much pasta. Later that evening I noticed the inflammation in my neck was really flaring up. It does that sometimes, but I've never really equated it with specific foods. Every aspect of my health has improved since I started changing my diet, with the exception of the inflammation that plagues me. This has caused me to suspect a food allergy of some kind, and the pasta/inflammation incident stirred me to attempt to go gluten free for a while. I've tapered off the gluten containing foods and am on day 5 of no gluten at all. I've read up on the subject some but still have some questions. They are:

1. Assuming I'm allergic to wheat or have an intolerance to gluten, how long before I notice some improvement?2. Am I okay handling wheat? I'm still milling wheat into flour and baking bread and pizza for my wife.3. Oats. I've heard conflicting advice on oats. I'm pretty sure I remember the bag of Bob's Red Mill Oats saying on it that it was processed in a gluten free facility, but I've long thrown the bag away so can't go check it. It'd be a pain to have to give up my oats, but I will, if I have to.

So far I've not noticed any significant improvement in how I feel. I've not had any flare ups in the two weeks since I overdosed on pasta, but I'm not feeling significantly better. I did notice today that my wedding ring now fits looser. I've given up wearing it on my ring finger some time ago because of the weight loss, but now I've moved it to yet another finger where it fits better, and I can get it on one finger now that I couldn't get over the knuckle just a couple days ago. It's very tight, but it goes over that knuckle now! It's possible that it's due to the weight loss, but I'm hoping it's a sign of good things to come on the inflammation front.

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Odd Symptoms

I have two odd symptoms to report, and don't know if either of them have anything to do with the two subjects above.

I don't see how either of these, especially the first, could have anything to do with spreading out my meals into smaller portions, but who knows? I figured the change in gluten might be a more likely suspect. When I say that I have no appetite or hunger I mean it. I can feel when my stomach is empty and know when I should eat, but have no real urge or drive to do so. Often I've been eating more because I've paid attention to what I've consumed during the day and know I have to consume some nutrition than out of any real drive to eat. If these symptoms make sense to anyone, please chime in and let me know! I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has a gluten/wheat intolerance and if they've experienced anything similar when removing gluten from their diet.

It was right about a month ago I reported I had been able to lower my CPAP pressure down to 13.8 cm/h20. Since then I've had a heck of a time getting it right. I've finally zeroed in on what my current needs are and it is 11.8 cm/h20. I've dropped 2 whole points in one month!! My needs were dropping faster than I was adjusting the machine down, which is what caused me to get so far out of whack this past month. I would love for this trend to continue at it's current pace. It'll mean I'm off that blasted device all the sooner!!!

Norm wrote:I sailed right threw and blew the doors off the 350 pound mark during these past two weeks! 350, while a nice round number, has not been one of my goal numbers, for reasons I've mentioned much earlier in my journal. I should reach 336 pounds with my next two-week weigh in, marking 150 pounds lost... But an even bigger motivator for me comes at 327 pounds!

Norm, this is wonderful news! Nice graph above, too. My husband (who is deeply in love with spreadsheets and charting things) is losing weight now, too, and he has all sorts of graphs going on - I showed him yours and he was impressed.

Nifty to hear about the stomach shrinkage following the volume eater recommendations has caused. This whole WOE is so very interesting, is it not?

Norm wrote:1. Assuming I'm allergic to wheat or have an intolerance to gluten, how long before I notice some improvement?

From what I understand, if it is an allergy or celiac then the results are very dramatic, but the effects can last for weeks, because the gluten is gunking up your digestive tract and that takes awhile to un-gunk (I is a scientist, I know you can tell ).

ON the other hand, if it is juts a sensitivity, and you also have other sensitivities, it could be harder to pin down, especially if you are still eating other trigger foods.

Norm wrote:3. Oats. I've heard conflicting advice on oats. I'm pretty sure I remember the bag of Bob's Red Mill Oats saying on it that it was processed in a gluten free facility, but I've long thrown the bag away so can't go check it. It'd be a pain to have to give up my oats, but I will, if I have to.

Oats do not have the same gluten as wheat, barley, rye and whichever other grains have that are typically problematic, but they do have their own form of glutinous stuff. If the oats themselves do not bother you, then Bob's Red Mill Gluten Free oats re good - thye really are wheat-gluten free.

Norm wrote:It's possible that it's due to the weight loss, but I'm hoping it's a sign of good things to come on the inflammation front.

Lets hope so! Speaking from experience, inflammation issues can sometimes take a while to resolve, and do so incrementally. Also, there may be substances you are reacting to with inflammation stored in you fat cells, and as you lose, the weight loss itself can trigger flares. This happened to me noticeably any time I lost a significant amount of weight in a particular week. It was a wild ride

Norm wrote:2. Complete lack of appetite/hunger.

I don't see how either of these, especially the first, could have anything to do with spreading out my meals into smaller portions, but who knows? I figured the change in gluten might be a more likely suspect. When I say that I have no appetite or hunger I mean it. I can feel when my stomach is empty and know when I should eat, but have no real urge or drive to do so. Often I've been eating more because I've paid attention to what I've consumed during the day and know I have to consume some nutrition than out of any real drive to eat. If these symptoms make sense to anyone, please chime in and let me know! I'd especially like to hear from anyone who has a gluten/wheat intolerance and if they've experienced anything similar when removing gluten from their diet.

If you are sensitive to gluten, (or any other food, really) it can create a reaction in the stomach that is like acidy-empty-growling, and cutting it out might have stopped that cycle, so the hunger feels different. Thus no appetite.

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